Du Rhône Chocolatier, Geneva

On Geneva’s elegant Rue du Rhône, where shop windows tend to whisper “luxury” rather than shout it, Du Rhône Chocolatier has been quietly doing its thing for over 140 years—and by “its thing,” we mean making it very hard to walk past without surrendering to chocolate.

The story begins in 1875, at the dawn of the Belle Époque, when Monsieur Pertuiset set up shop and quickly built a reputation for richly filled chocolate bars. Legend has it his horse-drawn carriage regularly blocked the street—not due to poor parking skills, but because he refused to move until he’d enjoyed a praline or two. Priorities, clearly, were in excellent order...

The plot thickens in the 1950s, when some of the company’s handwritten recipes mysteriously vanished. Ever since, what remains has been guarded like state secrets—reportedly tucked away in a vault that would make a bank feel under-secured. By 1967, Du Rhône had taken its sweets beyond Geneva, earning a place among the top ranks of Swiss chocolatiers.

Then comes a modern twist: in 2018, writer Joël Dicker and entrepreneur Joël Fradkoff took over the company management, bringing it back to its historic address at 118 Rue du Rhône with renewed energy and respect for tradition.

Today, the formula is simple but effective—passion, precision, and a refusal to cut corners. Specialties like the Carré Amer, Marc De Dôle, and Mocca Glacé continue to draw in curious visitors and loyal regulars alike. And if the weather turns cold—which, in Geneva, it eventually does—there’s always a cup of hot chocolate waiting inside. Consider it less a drink and more a very convincing argument to stay a little longer...